New York Mets center fielder Yoenis Cespedes has arguably the best arm in all of baseball, but in order to show it off, he’s got to field the ball first.
That’s a problem he ran into during Tuesday night’s game against the Washington Nationals.
In the bottom of the sixth inning, Nationals center fielder Michael Taylor stepped to the plate with the bases loaded and just one out. On an 0-1 pitch, he hit the ball back up the middle.
Trying to keep a second run from scoring, Cespedes went after the ball aggressively—a little too aggressively. He ended up missing it and had to watch it roll all the way to the wall. Mets left fielder Michael Conforto raced to the ball but was unable to keep Taylor from circling the bases.
Taylor was credited with a single and an RBI, with the other three runs scoring on the error. The “Little League grand slam” gave Washington a 7-1 lead.
Had it not been for the error, the Nationals would have only gotten one run on the play. Knowing Cespedes’ arm strength, Washington third-base coach Bob Henley was holding up Clint Robinson. But when the ball got past the center fielder, Henley’s arm turned into a windmill.
The Nationals, however, were unable to hold the big lead. New York tied the game in the seventh inning and took the lead with a run in the eighth. Cespedes made up for his miscue in the field with a three-run double during a six-run rally in the seventh.
The Mets held on to beat Washington, 8-7.
Bizarrely, this was the second Little League grand slam in less than a week. Boston Red Sox shortstop Xander Bogaerts hit one Saturday against the Philadelphia Phillies.
[MLB.com, Washington Nationals]
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